October in review

Overall, I am fairly happy with how October progressed. It has laid the foundation for the next month which is all about working towards the alpha release of Absolut. The project will release on heyletschill.com (not yet active) which is the more appropriate “pilot name” for it.

The general gist of the project is that it is essentially an alternative to meetup (without groups). Beta will launch in Vancouver and I will see if there is interest to bring it to other cities as well. You should see a landing page go up in the next week or so.

I’ve figured out most of the technical hurdles to how to execute on all the basic functionality so moving forward, it’s all about coding, and learning the nitty gritties as I build. The basic UI is also in place and we’re working on revisions and playing with colour schemes now.

My study group is mostly finished with its teaching sessions and now we are starting a group project. Sadly, we recently lost a member as he has taken a new full-time job and won’t have the time to continue with us.

Some of the lessons I’ve taken away from this month include being more strategic with my focus on what projects to work on. I had a meeting with a seasoned developer in Vancouver and he recommended that I focus on developing my core skill. “Startup can always come later”, he told me. Even though coding isn’t my passion, having it as my core skill meant that I could always find work easier to get me through the next hump.

Since meeting him, I’ve minimized any non rails work so I can hopefully call rails one of my core skills down the road. During any events/network sessions I always tell people about heyleteschill.com to get people interested in signing up for beta. Other than people hunting, I will also put greater focus on looking out for angels, and people in media.

Some of my goals for the next month are fairly obvious

Finish all basic functionality and launch private alpha with friends in the first week of December

Startup week is coming up in Vancouver. My goal will be to meet developers for collaboration and learn more about the angels/vc’s of Vancouver.

Of course, I’ve also looked a bit ahead (whether it happens or not). I’ve started thinking about options at Launch Academy, raising funding and another shot at living abroad. None of these have been flushed out much but they are in the back of my mind as I work towards the winter

Another goal I should mention is my goal to present at Product Hunt Vancouver’s next meetup (approx January). I think it would be a great experience for me to practice presenting and a chance to show off what I’ve done so far.

I’ll post again when the landing page is up.

-TUS

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